Alabama eliminated from NCAA baseball regional with 4-2 loss to Kennesaw State

TALLAHASSEE, Florida -- Kennesaw State's Jacob Bruce was 1-for-15 in the Tallahassee NCAA regional entering Monday's championship game against Alabama. But after Monday, he won't remember any of that.

Bruce's RBI double in the seventh inning drove in Matt Bahnick to give the Owls the lead for good as they ended Alabama's season with a 4-2 win over the Tide at Dick Howser Stadium.

While Bruce came up with the big hit when he needed it, Alabama could not. The Crimson Tide (37-24) led 2-1 midway through the fifth, but went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 13 men on base.

"This game's built on timely hits," Alabama coach Mitch Gaspard said. "When you get them, you typically win. When you don't, it's tough."

Gaspard was particularly miffed, however, but a called third strike on Kyle Overstreet that gave Kennesaw State (40-22), playing in its first-ever regional, the final out in the ninth inning.

"That's a ball; that's a flat-out ball," Gaspard said of the pitch from reliever Justin McCalvin. "The ball was not called off the plate the entire day. I was very disappointed in that last call there that we didn't get another pitch to fight with."

Travis Bergen, who threw 8 2/3 scoreless innings in the Owls' 1-0 tourney-opening win over the Tide on Friday, threw 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief to get the win for the Owls, who have only been a Division I program since 2006.

"We had talked about it as coaches," Kennesaw State coach Mike Sansing said of the decision to go back to Bergen, the third of four Owl pitchers. "I think it was right before the game, looked up and there was Bergen and he says, 'I'm ready.'

"I can't say enough about him coming back in two days and how effective he was. He was going to be effective, because he's got it right here," he added, pointing to his head.

Bergen, who threw 121 pitches on Friday, allowed one hit, one walk and struck out two, hitting one batter while throwing 53 pitches on Monday, earning regional Most Outstanding Player honors.

"That's pretty strong for a guy that threw on Friday," Gaspard said. "Back in the '90s, you used to see guys come and do that, but it's been a while since I've seen it. I thought early on he was a little bit up in the zone and then he kind of found it a little bit. He showed a lot of heart to come out and do what he did."

Kennesaw State (40-22) got on the board first thanks to a Kal Simmons sacrifice fly. Alabama went up 2-1 in the top of the fifth with an RBI single by Wade Wass and a sacrifice fly by Austen Smith, but the Owls tied it up in the bottom of the frame with an RBI double by Max Pentecost.

The tie held until the seventh, when Bahnick led off with a single to center, moved to second on Cornell Nixon's sacrifice bunt and took third on Simmons' groundout. Bruce then drove a pitch from Alabama reliever Thomas Burrows off the fence in right-center to make it 3-2.

"I was just trying to stay strong. My teammates had picked me up all weekend," Bruce said. "I guess it was just my time to get that big hit. The pitcher wasn't throwing many strikes but I just had to get that one strike to get the runner in."

Jeremy Howell added an insurance run with an RBI single in the eighth.

Alabama got two on in the ninth as Ben Moore was hit by a pitch and Wass singled, but McCalvin got Smith to pop out before the controversial strikeout of Overstreet.

Burrows (4-2) took the loss in relief of starter Jay Shaw, allowing run runs on four hits in 3 1/3 innings. Smith, Mikey White, Ben Moore and Chance Vincent were named to the all-regional team for the Crimson Tide.

"This team, quite honestly, has been very frustrating, because I know there's a lot of talent in this group and it's been a hard-working group -- the frustration's not on that side," Gaspard said. "When we went into our funk there for about a month, it was never about effort. I think it was just about the level of play at times for us. But I really thought here in the last two days, we really became the team I thought we would.

"These guys deserve a lot of credit. There were a lot of good things they did this year for the program. ... We certainly had our ups and downs this year, but the character of this team I never questioned."